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Why West Ham should cancel Diangana transfer

By Henry Tomlinson

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 03: Grady Diangana of West Ham in action during the Pre-Season Friendly match between West Ham United and Athletic Bilbao at the Olympic Stadium on August 03, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 03: Grady Diangana of West Ham in action during the Pre-Season Friendly match between West Ham United and Athletic Bilbao at the Olympic Stadium on August 03, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images) /
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West Ham have agreed to sell rising star Grady Diangana to West Brom, but there are plenty of reasons why they should cancel the transfer.

Grady Diangana had a brilliant season put on loan at the Baggies in the Championship last season and it is no surprise that they want to keep the skilful winger. West Ham have accepted an offer of roughly £18 million for him, much to the dismay of the club’s fans.

1. Fan Reaction

West Ham have put its fans through a lot over the last couple of years. Ever since the move to the London Stadium, Fans believe that they have been lied to and that the owners do not have the best interests of the club at heart.

Whether it was a lack of investment during Slaven Bilic’s reign or failed promises about the stadium, there has always been something. Now when David Moyes was brought back and the board said that he would be backed, fans understood and bought into the new vision.

The potential sale of Diangana goes completely against that. West Ham fans have always loved a youngster to make their name at the club. Therefore getting rid of Diangana before he has the chance that he deserves, could lead to a complete breakdown of an already strained relationship.

After the news broke of the Diangana deal with West Brom fans protested it and the board on social media. The protest gathered momentum, leading to “GSB OUT” being the number one trending topic on Twitter.

2. Footballing Reasons

The vision was that Moyes wanted to build a ‘Red Bull’ type project and sign young hungry talent rather than ageing stars. Diangana fitted this mould perfectly and what was even more ideal, was that he was already at the club.

Moyes wanted to sign to the best talent from the Championship and was already in possession of arguably one of its best attacker last season. So keeping hold of Diangana and promoting him to the first-team would have been the best option.

But now it seems that plan has been thrown under the bus. Letting go of one of the best talents the academy has produced in recent years to a potential rival is appalling business. This means that Diangana could play against and hurt West Ham next season.

But if he stayed at the club, he could prove that he is the man to fire the Hammers away from trouble. Record signing, Sebastien Haller, has already spoken about how great it was to play with Diangana.

"It’s nice for us to have a kind of player like Grady…Hopefully he will be giving me even more assists in the future! Haller told WHUFC offical."

Haller struggled in his debut campaign as a Hammer, but it was clear for all to see that he had built a connection with Diangana already. In preseason The 22-year-old winger set-up Haller to score twice, selling Diangana could not only weaken the Hammers wing positions but also destroy a potentially potent attacking partnership.